The Plantation

Sugar – The New Age
The sole cash crop that crushed the exportation of cotton and tobacco and reigned in the Caribbean for the next two hundred (200) years was sugar.
Dutch colonists in Brazil were the 1st to grow sugar extensively. They then taught the English, in Barbados, ways of cultivation and manufacture in 1644 and soon “sugar was king”. By 1650, Barbados was the primary sugar-producer and was known as “the brightest jewel in the crown of King Charles II”. Other French colonies soon followed Barbados.
The Sugar Revolution
Definition
Sugar Revolution – drastic change from producing a variety of crops to sugar cane ONLY.

Implications of the Sugar Revolution/ Changes brought about by the Sugar Revolution:

a) New Methods of producing sugar – The English and French began inventing new and better ways of processing sugar cane.

b) The Labour Force – Planting and processing sugar cane required extensive labour force. The planters wanted work to be done using the cheapest labour force, which in the end, would mean greater profits for them when the sugar was sold. Thus, an increasing number of African slaves were used.

c) Increase in the price of Land: Great sugar plantations developed by buying the small plots of land that were used to cultivate tobacco. As sugar became more profitable, the demand for land increased, which caused the price of land to increase.

d) Change in governance – As the English French and Dutch colonies became more important, there was a need for systems of government and control. At 1st, the government in Europe did not want to spend money on their colonies, leaving all responsibilities on the proprietors (owners of the plantation). However, when they realized how profitable their colonies were becoming, they stepped in to claim ownership.

e) Trade: When Europeans realized the value of their colonies, they wanted control over the sailing routes and trading patterns on the West African coast, the Caribbean and North America. France and Britain did not want to share their profits, and neither wanted Dutch sailors to get profits by transporting French and English goods.

f) Monopoly: England formed a monopoly (meaning British sailors were only allowed to trade with British merchants). This led to a series of war between Britain and Holland (the Dutch). Battle also occurred between Britain and Spain over Spanish smugglers who tried to break the agreement. In 1651, the Navigation Act was passed which controlled the export and freight charges on ships and placed trading restrictions with Holland.

The Slave Trade: A Triangle of Commerce Definitions: Slavery: condition of a slave being owned by and serving another Slave – a person who undergoes slavery Commerce – buying or selling

The Triangular Trade Definition: Triangular Trade – trade among three (3) regions (The Caribbean, Europe and Africa)

Diagram of the Triangular Trade:

The first leg of the triangle was from a European port to Africa, in which ships carried supplies for sale and trade, such as copper, cloth, trinkets, slave beads, guns and ammunition. [3] When the slave ship arrived, its cargo would be sold or bartered for slaves, who were tightly packed like any other cargo to maximize profits.
On the second leg, ships made the journey of the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World (Caribbean). Once the slave ship reached the New World, enslaved survivors were sold in the Caribbean or the Americas.
The ships were then prepared to get them thoroughly cleaned, drained, and loaded with export goods for a return voyage, the third leg, to their home port. The ship then returned to Europe to complete the triangle.
The Middle Passage – the forcible passage of Africans to the Caribbean and Americas as part of slave trade.

The Middle Passage was located between Africa and the West Indies. Slave ships anchored along the coast of Africa waiting to be filled. Slaves were packed into the lower decks “like books on a shelf”. Men, women and children were packed closely together.
On these overcrowded ships, there was a constant fear of disease and death and, although doctors were present on each ship, they did little to stop epidemics. Slaves who died were thrown overboard, while other slaves attempted suicide by jumping overboard or refusing to eat.
They were fed and brought out on deck regularly to exercise or dance under heavy guard. There were few instances where slaves attempted to revolt on the ship, but if it occurred, these revolts were easily put down by the guards.

Slavery: Arrival to the Caribbean after the Middle Passage Journey

Arrival / ‘Journeys’ End’ / ‘Preparation for Sale’
As the slavers finally arrived in the colonies the captain and his crew set about the task of making those who had survived the trip as attractive as possible to potential buyers. The many who had died en route would have been flung overboard. This process involved a degree of fattening up after the starvation rations of the crossing, shaving the men, dyeing grey hair and rubbing bodies with oils to make them glisten with apparent good health. Attention was also paid to the condition of eyes, ears and teeth.

The Mad Scramble

After rejuvenating slaves that survived the sea voyage, at an auction, or, in what was known as a ‘scramble’ in a large yard belonging to the merchants to whom the ship had been consigned. Occasionally the sale would actually take place on board the ship. The whole procedure proved startling for the objects of the sale, who were physically manhandled in a mad scramble (hence the name of the activity) and captured by potential buyers with ropes or handkerchiefs strung together. After the sale had been concluded the slaves, if they had not managed to escape (as some frequently did despite their chains) amidst the hysteria of the scramble, were branded (again) by their new owners and marched off to the plantation. A ‘healthy slave would fetch about £30 to £40 in the West Indies.

The Working Plantation: Producing the Wealth

The Working Day of a Slave

The working day of the plantation slave would begin with the blowing of a conch shell or the ringing of a bell before dawn. This ensured the slaves were in the field at first light, where they would often remain until sunset, with only a short break in the middle of the day.

In the Field

One of the first tasks of a slave on a newly established plantation was the creation of fields and plots of cultivable land. This work was carried out by slaves working in ‘great gangs’. Slave gangs worked under a native ‘driver’ who kept them working with the aid of a whip, ensuring hard work and punishment for any shortcomings or slacking.
When the fields had been made ready, then came planting. The cane was planted in wide holes or trenches (in the process called ‘holing’) approximately 15cm deep in heavy soil baked hard by the sun. This was extraordinarily demanding work.

The Mill and Boiling House Sugar plantations processed the raw material; they did not just grow it. Sugar could not be extracted, processed and dispatched without skilled workers and so therefore a sizeable minority of artisans and tradesmen were needed. Slave distillers and boilers understood how each stage of the manufacturing process worked –when the sugar was ready, when to add ingredients. These vital skills could only be acquired with experience. Once the slaves had mastered these tasks they were generally left alone to get on with it, occasionally supervised by a bookkeeper. Their efforts were complemented by the work of coopers, carpenters and smiths who made the barrels and hogsheads in which sugar left the estate.

The African Village
The slave depended on his/her master for everything. Two pairs of clothes were given a year. The cheapest of foods, such as salted meat and fish, corn and flour was imported to the Caribbean and rationed to slaves.
The intense nature of plantation life made it impossible for slaves to live far from either their work or their masters, but an attempt was made to live a secluded private and domestic life close together with fellow Africans. This led to the creation of veritable African villages across the Caribbean. Up to a point, planters and various island authorities aided slave cultivation by the allocation of small measures of land and gardens and some free time (usually on a Sunday) to work on them. At the same time, whilst on some plantations provisions were grown for slaves, for instance yams and corn, these were meagre rations and so the labour force took to private cultivation to supplement a poor diet. In the British-owned possessions especially the most enterprising slaves took their own fruit and vegetables, pigs, goats and chickens to the local Sunday market to barter for rum and tobacco.